Ukraine drone hits oil refinery

A UKRAINIAN drone struck Russia’s third largest oil refinery yesterday, about 1300km from the front lines, hitting a unit that processes about 155 000 barrels of crude a day, though an industry source said the damage was not significant.

Russian officials said its jamming devices locked on to a Ukrainian drone near Tatneft’s Taneco refinery, which has an annual production capacity of more than 17 million tons (340 000 barrels a day). The drone hit the primary refining unit, CDU-7.

An industry source said the damage to the unit was not critical and the personnel were returning to the plant. A fire broke out at the refinery but was extinguished within 20 minutes, the state news agency RIA said, adding that output had not been disrupted.

Ramil Mullin, the mayor of Nizhnekamsk in the Tatarstan region southeast of Moscow, where the refinery is located, said no serious damage was done. The unit that was hit accounts for around a half of the plant’s total annual production capacity. The refinery accounts for about 6.2% of Russia’s refining capacity.

A military intelligence source in Ukraine, which has been at war with Russia since Moscow began a full-scale invasion of its neighbour two years ago, said in Kyiv that the primary Taneco refining unit had been hit, causing a fire. The source said the aim of the strike was to reduce Russia’s oil revenue. Another Ukrainian intelligence source said Ukrainian-made drones also hit a Russian plant, producing long-range “Shahed” attack drones, causing “significant damage”.

Yesterday’s attack was one of several in Tatarstan, a highly industrialised region, in the early hours of Tuesday. The Washington Post reported last year that Russia was mass-producing drones at a plant in Tatarstan.

Ukraine has in recent months begun attacking the oil refineries of Russia, the world’s second largest oil exporter, impacting Moscow’s highly lucrative trade in refined products, amid extensive Russian missile strikes on Ukraine’s energy grid. Around 14% of Russia’s refining capacity has been shut down by drone attacks. There is more demand for refined oil products than for Russian crude.

The attacks on Russian refineries have raised concerns in Washington about the potential for escalation with Russia, which is the world’s largest nuclear power.